Great art speaks for the voiceless in society. Joss Whedon did that, at the time, by providing vehicles for women to kick ass and fight back against sexist attackers. Now society has changed. Whedon has not changed with it, so his art no longer is able to be great and now merely seems cheap.

Similarly, men considered to be geniuses of their time, like Faulkner or Hemingway, are now read with trepidation for their representations of women. Yet at the time, they shed light on the lives of marginalized people in ways that felt revolutionary.

The mores of society and our expectations of each other have, thankfully, changed throughout time.

It is a good thing that one historical period's genius is another period's loathsome alcoholic creep.

They're not the ones who changed. We did.